be governed by the mind. With matter had come forth perception. Water
now flowed and covered everything. Water, water everywhere, but nothing
that would sink. The Parabrahman manifested itself as a divine entity who
lay on these waters like a lily pad over a pond. Since water is ‘nara’ and
abode is ‘ayana’, this entity acquired his name.
Narayana.
The Parabrahman now implanted its own seed in the water. Thus
fertilised, the water nurtured the seed and, in due course, generated an egg.
A golden egg that shone like an orb of light. Since this egg, or anda, had
been spawned by the Parabrahman, it came to be known as Brahmanda. The
cosmos. Narayana now entered the egg as Vishnu. The All-Pervading One.
The Preserver, presiding over Sattva Guna. As this golden egg, or hiranya,
enveloped him like a womb, or garbha, it acquired the name Hiranyagarbha.
A lotus with fourteen petals sprouted through Vishnu’s navel, and out of
this flower emerged Brahma. Another divine manifestation of the
Parabrahman. The Creator, presiding over Rajas Guna. The progenitor bore
a kamandala, or water bowl, and a mala, or rosary. Born thus of a lotus from
the navel, he got other names, like Padmayoni and Nabhija.
After spending a year inside the Hiranyagarbha, like a pearl gestating in
an oyster, Brahma split the egg into two. The upper half became heaven and
the lower half, earth. Between the two stretched the sky. Brahma had begun
the cycle and he knew how it would eventually end. Creation, or sarga,
would lead to preservation, or sthiti and finally give way to dissolution, or
pralay. But as soon as one cycle would die, a new one would be born. At the
end of every cycle, when all would be reduced to the primeval ocean of
chaos, he would initiate this process all over again.
An eternal sequence of cycles. A universe of interlocked circles.
Like a firework exploding in a dark sky, Brahmanda had come into
being. Brahma sat gazing at what he had just created. Then he entered a
state of meditation and from his depths originated the four Vedas. Rig Veda,
Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Little did the Creator know that
four troubles were also about to rear their heads. Four troubles that would
now endanger this very course of creation.